U.S. patent application number 09/939445 was filed with the patent office on 2003-02-27 for computer controlled interactive touch display pad with transparent full character keyboard overlaying displayed text and graphics.
Invention is credited to Kraft, Joshua Dickinson.
Application Number | 20030038821 09/939445 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 25473192 |
Filed Date | 2003-02-27 |
United States Patent
Application |
20030038821 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Kraft, Joshua Dickinson |
February 27, 2003 |
Computer controlled interactive touch display pad with transparent
full character keyboard overlaying displayed text and graphics
Abstract
A portable computer controlled user interactive touch responsive
read/write display pad comprising the combination of a display
screen displaying text and graphics, a transparent touch sensitive
pad covering said display screen, an implementation responsive to
cursive drawing or characters touch input for displaying such
drawing or characters on said display screen together with an
implementation for displaying a full character keyboard on said
display screen and responsive to touch inputs to characters on said
keyboard for displaying said touch keyboard inputs as text entries
within said displayed text and graphics. This full character
keyboard is preferably superimposed upon and transparent to said
displayed text and graphics in the displayed document. There is
further included an implementation for selectively rendering either
one of said implementation responsive to cursive drawing or said
implementation responsive to inputs to touch keyboard
non-interactive while the other of said means remains interactive
to thereby permit the unimpeded functioning of the means remaining
interactive. In accordance with an aspect of the invention, there
is an implementation for varying the transparentness of said
superimposed keyboard whereby said keyboard is less transparent
when said keyboard is interactive and more transparent when said
keyboard is non-interactive.
Inventors: |
Kraft, Joshua Dickinson;
(Austin, TX) |
Correspondence
Address: |
J.B. KRAFT
SUITE 5-C
71C COLORADO ST.
AUSTIN
TX
78701
US
|
Family ID: |
25473192 |
Appl. No.: |
09/939445 |
Filed: |
August 27, 2001 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
345/629 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/04886
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
345/629 |
International
Class: |
G09G 005/00 |
Claims
1. A portable computer controlled user interactive touch responsive
read/write display pad comprising: a display screen displaying text
and graphics; a transparent touch sensitive pad covering said
display screen; means responsive to cursive drawing or characters
touch input for displaying such drawing or characters on said
display screen; means for displaying a full character keyboard on
said display screen; and means responsive to touch inputs to
characters on said keyboard for displaying said touch keyboard
inputs as text entries within said displayed text and graphics.
2. The display pad of claim 1 wherein said full character keyboard
is superimposed upon and transparent to said displayed text and
graphics.
3. The display pad of claim 2 further including means for
selectively rendering either one of said means responsive to
cursive drawing or said means responsive to inputs to touch
keyboard non-interactive, while the other of said means remains
interactive to thereby permit the unimpeded functioning of the
means remaining interactive.
4. The display pad of claim 2 further including means for varying
the transparentness of said superimposed keyboard.
5. The display pad of claim 3 further including means for varying
the transparentness of said superimposed keyboard whereby said
keyboard is less transparent when said keyboard is interactive and
more transparent when said keyboard is non-interactive.
6. The display pad of claim 3 further including means responsive to
an input to a key in said keyboard for rendering interactive said
means responsive to keyboard inputs and for rendering
non-interactive said means responsive to cursive drawing.
7. The display pad of claim 6 further including means for varying
the transparentness of said superimposed keyboard whereby said
keyboard is less transparent when said keyboard is interactive and
more transparent when said keyboard is non-interactive.
8. In a portable computer controlled user interactive touch
responsive read/write display pad having a display screen
displaying text and graphics, and a transparent touch sensitive pad
covering said display screen, a method for making both cursive and
typed modifications to said displayed text and graphics comprising:
displaying cursive drawing or cursive characters on said display
screen responsive to cursive drawing or characters touch input;
displaying a full character keyboard on said display screen; and
responsive to touch inputs to characters on said keyboard,
displaying such touch inputs as text entries within said displayed
text and graphics.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein said full character keyboard is
superimposed upon and transparent to said displayed text and
graphics.
10. The method of claim 9 further including the step of selectively
rendering either one of said step responsive to cursive drawing or
said step responsive to inputs to touch keyboard non-interactive
while the other of said steps remains interactive to thereby permit
the unimpeded functioning of the step remaining interactive.
11. The method of claim 9 further including the step of varying the
transparentness of said superimposed keyboard.
12. The method of claim 10 further including the step of varying
the transparentness of said superimposed keyboard whereby said
keyboard is less transparent when said keyboard is interactive and
more transparent when said keyboard is non-interactive.
13. The method of claim 10 further including the step responsive to
an input to a key in said keyboard of rendering interactive said
step responsive to keyboard inputs and for rendering
non-interactive said step responsive to cursive drawing.
14. The method of claim 13 further including the step of varying
the transparentness of said superimposed keyboard whereby said
keyboard is less transparent when said keyboard is interactive and
more transparent when said keyboard is non-interactive.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present invention relates to user interactive computer
supported display technology and particularly to such user
interactive systems and methods related to touch screen
technology.
BACKGROUND OF RELATED ART
[0002] In recent years, convergence of the data processing industry
with the consumer electronics and communications industries has
accelerated extensive consumer and business involvement in computer
driven technologies. As a result of these changes, all aspects of
work in business and technology requires human/computer interfaces.
There is a need to make computer directed activities accessible to
a substantial portion of people who up to a few years ago, were
computer illiterate, or at best, computer indifferent. In order for
the extensive computer supported market places to continue and be
commercially productive, it will be necessary for a large segment
of computer indifferent workers and consumers to be involved in
computer interfaces. Thus, the challenge of technology is to create
interfaces to computers that are as close to the real world as
possible.
[0003] In this connection, the mouse, which has been the primary
input device to computers for a generation, is still considered to
be a physically awkward input device. Consequently, there has been
considerable effort in the development of the touch screen or touch
panel. It is easy to use because it allows the user to point
directly to the display screen with his finger or a pen or stylus
to make selections that result in graphic or alphanumeric changes
on the display screen. The touch panel, in various forms, has been
in use for several years. Several different technologies have been
involved in touch panels. Original touch panels used a series of
infrared LEDs and light sensors, such as photodiodes, to provide
low resolution panels of up to 50 resolvable positions. The LEDs
and sensors form a grid of invisible light beams that the finger
breaks to, thus, indicate its position. The capacitively coupled
touch panels were able to develop a resolution of about 100
resolvable positions. Higher resolution touch screens have been
developed using a variety of technologies from sound waves
reflected off fingers to conductive/resistive layers separated by
insulative material broken down by touch.
[0004] Recent developments, which have dramatically improved the
clarity and resolution of liquid crystal displays, as well as the
improved resolution and responsiveness in touch panels overlaid on
such liquid crystal displays, have renewed the hopes among
students, academics, researchers and literary developers for an
effective paperless notebook. Such a notebook should be one which
is light and portable; can store up to several books, sequences of
pages of which may be read via the display screen; enables the
entry of cursive drawings, graphics and script, e.g. class or
scientific notes and annotations respective to the text and images;
as well as the entry of typed text.
[0005] The latter has presented a problem because for greatest
convenience it requires a full keyboard. This has led to awkward
notebook structures with a separate swing-out touch keyboard not
unlike laptop PCs. Also, some touchpads have a separate keyboard
apart from the displayed text and graphics document for typed text
entries. Other simpler display notebooks have some minimal pecking
in of alphanumeric characters but not from a full keyboard
array.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
[0006] The present invention provides a solution to the
above-mentioned shortcomings of touch screen display notebooks by
eliminating the hinged swing-out keyboard while having a full
keyboard available for the entry of typed text, as well as a
simultaneous display of the text/graphics document being read or
modified. To achieve such results, the present invention provides a
portable computer controlled user interactive touch responsive
read/write display pad comprising the combination of a display
screen displaying text and graphics, a transparent touch sensitive
pad covering said display screen, means responsive to cursive
drawing or characters touch input for displaying such drawing or
characters on said display screen, means for displaying a full
character keyboard on said display screen and means responsive to
touch inputs to characters on said keyboard for displaying said
touch keyboard inputs as text entries within said displayed text
and graphics.
[0007] This full character keyboard is preferably superimposed upon
and transparent to said displayed text and graphics in the
displayed document. There is further included means for selectively
rendering either one of said means responsive to cursive drawing or
said means responsive to inputs to touch keyboard non-interactive
while the other of said means remains interactive to thereby permit
the unimpeded functioning of the means remaining interactive. In
accordance with an aspect of the invention, there are means for
varying the transparentness of said superimposed keyboard whereby
said keyboard is less transparent when said keyboard is interactive
and more transparent when said keyboard is non-interactive.
[0008] There is also provided means responsive to an input to a key
in said keyboard for rendering interactive said means responsive to
keyboard inputs and for rendering non-interactive said means
responsive to cursive drawing.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0009] The present invention will be better understood and its
numerous objects and advantages will become more apparent to those
skilled in the art by reference to the following drawings, in
conjunction with the accompanying specification, in which:
[0010] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a data processing system
including a central processing unit, an LCD display and overlaid
touch panel display that is capable of implementing the present
invention;
[0011] FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic general three-dimensional view of
the touch sensitive notebook of the present invention;
[0012] FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the notebook display screen
of the present invention having a page of a book or document with
text and graphics;
[0013] FIG. 4 is the diagrammatic view of the displayed page of
FIG. 3 during editing or cursive data entry via a stylus; in this
mode the superimposed keyboard has a high transparentness;
[0014] FIG. 5 is the diagrammatic view of the displayed page of
FIG. 3 during editing or text data entry via the keyboard; in this
mode the superimposed keyboard has a relatively low
transparentness;
[0015] FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the basic elements of the program
in a computer controlled display system of this invention for
coordinating the input to the touch display with the
transparentness of the keyboard; and
[0016] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the steps involved in an
illustrative run of data entry or document editing within the
process set up in FIG. 6.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0017] Referring to FIG. 1, a data processing system is shown which
may function as the computer controlled display terminal with the
touch pad data entry display coupled to the primary display in
accordance with the present invention. The computer controlled
primary LCD display may be a LCD display personal computer unit
made up of a central processing unit (CPU) 10, such as one of the
PC processors available from International Business Machines
Corporation (IBM), Dell Corp. or Compaq Corp., which is provided
and interconnected to various other components by system bus 12. An
operating system 41 runs on CPU 10 and provides control and is used
to coordinate the functions of the various components of FIG. 1,
including the touch screen 21 LCD display 23 pad which will
hereinafter be described in greater detail. Operating system 41 may
be one of the commercially available operating systems such as
Microsoft Windows95.TM. or WindowsNT.TM., as well as UNIX or IBM's
AIX operating systems. A program for simultaneously displaying the
images of the primary display document or book on the touch pad 21
display 23 and for applying the superimposed transparent keyboard
image to the LCD display, application 40, to be subsequently
described, runs in conjunction with operating system 41 and
provides output calls to the operating system 41 which implement
the various functions to be performed by the application 40. A read
only memory (ROM) 16 is connected to CPU 10 via bus 12 and includes
the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) that controls the basic
computer functions. Random Access Memory (RAM) 14, I/O adapter 18
and communications adapter 34 are also interconnected to system bus
12. It should be noted that software components, including
operating system 41 and application 40, are loaded into RAM 14,
which is the computer system's main memory when the system is in
operation. Otherwise, when the system is dormant, most of the
software, including operating system 40 and applications 41, are
stored in disk storage device 20. I/O adapter 18 may be a Small
Computer System Interface (SCSI) adapter that communicates with the
disk storage device 20, i.e. a hard drive. Communications adapter
34 interconnects bus 12 with an outside network enabling the data
processing system to communicate with other such systems over a
Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN), which
includes, of course, the Internet. Thus, the system of the present
invention may be used with screens and pages received over the
Internet. I/O devices, such as keyboard 24 and mouse 32, are also
connected to system bus 12 via user interface adapter 22. It is
through such input devices that the user may make conventional data
entries.
[0018] With respect to the display pad input devices used in the
invention, any conventional touch screen display may be used.
Typically, in FIG. 1, there is an LCD display having surface 23
upon which the visual output from the computer is generated via pad
display adapter 30. A touch sensitive display panel 21 is
superimposed upon display surface 23. This touch screen, which is
about 1/4" to 1/2" from surface 23, is responsive to a touch
stimulus, i.e. stylus 27, applied by the user to make the graphic,
cursive and other entries to be subsequently described. The touch
screen 21 resolution is determined by digitizing circuitry (not
shown) in a touch screen adapter 25 to form a two-dimensional array
of discrete coordinate points. A touch stimulus applied by stylus
27 or by the user's fingers in the superimposed keyboard to any of
the coordinate points is detected by a sensor array (not shown) in
the touch panel 21. The sensor array generates an analog signal
responsive to the force imparted to the touch screen. The stimulus
may also be imparted proximate to the touch screen. The signal is
digitized by a sampling A to D convertor circuit (not shown) in
touch panel 21 to produce an input data value. This data value,
together with the coordinates to which it relates, are transmitted
from touch panel 21 to touch pad display adapter 25. The input data
value corresponding to each set of coordinates is conventionally
refreshed by the A to D converter circuit about 60 times a second.
The touch pad adapter 25 connected to the bus architecture 12
passes each set of coordinates to the bus architecture 12 to the
CPU 10 and operating system 41 wherein this input is applied to the
LCD display 23 via LCD display adapter 30.
[0019] The touch panels or screens 21 may use any of the standard
technologies discussed above. In the present embodiment, higher
resolution panels using resistive/conductive composites should
provide best results. Such structures use two slightly separated
layers of transparent material, one coated with a thin layer of
conductive material and the other with resistive material. The
pressure of the stylus forces the layers to touch and the voltage
drop across the resistive substrate is measured and used to
determine the coordinates of the touched positions. There are many
such conductive/resistive touch screen displays on the market that
may be used in the implementation of the present invention, such as
the IBM 2489 Model 600 and PGI Super Nightingale.
[0020] A three-dimensional view of the housing for the notebook
display of the present invention is shown in FIG. 2. The notebook
housing 45 includes touch sensitive display screen 46 showing a
page of a book or document with printed text 47 and graphics 48.
There is a superimposed displayed keyboard 50 and some controls 51
for the notebook.
[0021] There will now be described a simple illustration of the
present invention with respect to the display screens of FIGS. 3
through 5. When the screen images are described, it will be
understood that these may be rendered by storing image and text
creation programs, such as those in any conventional window
operating system in the RAM 14 of the system of FIG. 1. The
operating system is diagrammatically shown in FIG. 1 as operating
system 41. The display screens of FIGS. 3 through 5 are presented
to the viewer on LCD display 23 of FIG. 1.
[0022] FIG. 3 shows an illustrative display screen during a
document or book reading session. The display may be scrolled or
paged conventionally. The screen 46 contains text 47 and graphics
48. If the user decides to edit, annotate or take class notes in
his notebook, he may switch into an edit mode as shown in FIG. 4
where he may use pressure stylus 51 in the conventional manner to
add cursive notes 52 or cursive drawing or graphics 53. During this
edit session, a full keyboard 50 will appear. The keyboard is
transparent so that the user may still be able to see the
underlying text and graphics. Since the editing in FIG. 4 is being
done in the cursive mode, the keyboard 50 has a high
transparentness, i.e. it is a "ghost" image to indicate its
position and presence. The operating system graphics may be set up
so that the keyboard entry edit mode for the entry of typed text is
switched to when the user hits any key in the keyboard.
Alternatively, one of the keys in the keyboard may be set up to be
the switch key. In the present example, "y" key 56 performs this
role, i.e. the user must hit this key to switch to the keyboard
entry mode shown is FIG. 5. In this keyboard entry mode, the
keyboard 50 becomes less transparent and more clearly defined for
ease of use. The keyboard is then used for entry of text 55 or for
keystroke editing 55. While stylus 51 does not function during the
keyboard entry mode of FIG. 5, it is included in the figure just
for illustrative comparison purposes. In carrying out the functions
of FIGS. 4 and 5, the touch responsive display pad may be set up to
respond conventionally to the stylus pressure. In the keyboard mode
of FIG. 5, pressure response programs may be set up so that
pressure applied at the positions of each of the respective keys is
translated to an image of the character on the screen at the point
of editing.
[0023] Now, with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7, we will describe a
process implemented by the present invention in conjunction with
the flowcharts of these figures. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the
development of a process according to the present invention for a
touch sensitive notebook with text entry via a superimposed
keyboard. A routine is set up for displaying documents or books
with graphics and text on a touch display, step 61. A routine is
set up for entering cursive drawing and script via a stylus into
the displayed document, step 62. A routine is provided for
displaying a full character keyboard on the touch display
superimposed upon at least a portion of the displayed text and
graphics, step 63. Means are provided for activating the
transparent full keyboard so that the touch sensitivity to the
stylus is rendered inactive when the keyboard is activated, step
64. A routine is provided for translating touches at the key
positions into corresponding text entered into the displayed book
or document, step 65. A routine is provided for deactivating the
keyboard and activating the touch sensitivity to the stylus for
cursive entries, step 66. A routine is also provided for increasing
the transparentness of the keyboard when the keyboard is
deactivated, step 67.
[0024] The illustrative running of the process will now be
described with respect to FIG. 7. First, step 70, the text/graphics
document or book page is displayed. The user selects the edit mode
and the transparent keyboard is displayed superimposed over the
text/graphics, step 71. A determination is then made as to whether
the user has selected the keyboard text-entry mode of editing, step
72. If Yes, the keyboard is made less transparent, i.e. more
clearly displayed, step 73, and desired text entries are made in
the document via the touch keyboard, step 74. If the determination
in step 72 is No, the keyboard mode has not been selected, then
step 45, the keyboard is made more transparent, i.e. a "ghost"
outline, step 75, and stylus script and drawing entries are made
into the document, step 76. Upon the completion of either a text,
step 74, or a stylus entry, step 76, function, a determination may
conveniently be made as to whether the session is at an end, step
77. If Yes, the session is exited. If No, the session is returned
to step 72 where a further determination is made as to whether the
user has selected the keyboard text-entry mode of editing and the
process is repeated with respect to the current or new page.
[0025] Although certain preferred embodiments have been shown and
described, it will be understood that many changes and
modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope
and intent of the appended claims.
* * * * *